Bubble bubble
by Misery Lotus
Summary: Events in the lives of Boruto, Sarada and Himawari as they grow up.
1. Chapter 1

Boruto was a tiny child when he met Himawari.

She was so small, with black hair and two small whisker marks. Mother held her and was smiling down at her, then looked up to Dad who had his arm around her, and was looking at them both, smiling himself.

Boruto felt very happy.

He sat on his father's lap, who was holding him steadily against himself. He extended his arms to his little sister. He couldn't hold her, for he was still small, but his small hand touched her petite face carefully and he felt a soft warmth under his fingertips.

Her eyes opened and showed a colour the same as his own. Boruto grinned at her. She stared back cluelessly, as she didn't know how to smile yet.

Weeks later she would show her first smile to her older brother. Her first grin, as he observed her through her crib, standing on a stool to view her from above. He would be mesmerised and spend many more early mornings here, sitting up as soon as he woke between his parents, his feet pattering gently on the wooden floor as he made his way to his baby sister's bed. He would have his fingers over the sheets of blankets below her tiny body and watch her sleep, her chest rise and fall. He likes watching her from the side more than from above. He would observe her thick hair, her pale skin, the thin blue and green veins across her forehead.

Himawari wasn't a loud baby. She didn't cry very much and she didn't make Mum and Dad as tired as Boruto had.

Boruto liked Himawari the most.

Some time soon, she'll open her eyes and stare blankly at the ceiling above her, and not cry or yell until Boruto hears Mum and Dad wake. He can hear it, not by the shuffling of their blankets or the quietening of their deep breaths, but he can hear them wake. And it seems Himawari can hear too.

She was such a tidy baby.

* * *

><p>Sarada's childhood was happy. She grew up with the love of both her parents. They lived together in Uchiha Sasuke's old home. They ate together, laughed together, held hands, the three of them, when they took walks at twilight.<p>

As she becomes older, Papa often has to leave the village for things. Some nights where Mama had to stay at the Konoha hospital, Sarada stays with the Uzumaki family. She plays with Boruto at the playground, sometimes ninja games, sometimes skipping rope. They eat dinner together; Uncle Naruto, Auntie Hinata, Boruto, Himawari. They watch television together after dinner, sometimes the three children, sometimes all five of them. Before bed, Auntie Hinata baths her and Himawari together.

There are two beds in Boruto and Himawari's room, yet Himawari often sleeps in Boruto's bed. When Sarada stays over, she joins them, and the three of them sleep close together on Boruto's bed all night.

Sometimes Sarada wakes up first and finds Boruto had fallen off the bed. Sometimes no one has fallen off the bed and they squash up to whoever is in the centre. Usually it's Himawari, but when it's Boruto, Sarada clings to him strongly in case he kicks her off the bed before he wakes up. Sometimes she's in the middle, and both Himawari and Boruto face her, hugging her unconsciously, and she doesn't miss her parents as much.

Once, when Papa had come home after a long trip, Uncle Naruto and Auntie Hinata invited her over for the night. The next day she goes home, and Mama and Papa are smiling and radiating with joy. Papa sweeps her up and embraces her, spins her around like she had seen him do to Mama before. The whole day was blissful, the three of them together, the entire day.

* * *

><p>Boruto starts to understand Sarada more when Naruto becomes Hokage.<p>

Whereas before his father spent lots of time being with him, the time gradually decreased. He misses his father, misses laughing with him, listening to his stories about great ninja, being told off by Mum to not do silly things, but laughing with them. He misses always seeing Daddy, misses seeing him and Mummy look at each other with icky sweet eyes. He wonders if Sarada felt the same before.

One night, when Naruto is working overnight at the office and Sakura on a night shift at the hospital, Himawari falls sick. Hinata takes her to the hospital, closer to their home than any other compound which had doctors. Boruto and Sarada are alone in the home that night.

They lay in bed together, on their backs, unused to the absence of a third gentle, soft warmth.

"Hey, Sarada," Boruto said out loud.

"What?"

"My dad is always gone."

"I know."

"My mum gets lonely." Boruto turns his back towards Sarada.

"I know."

"Does your mum get lonely too?"

"I think so." Sarada says quietly.

"...Do you ever miss him?" Boruto asks. His stubbornness only allows him to be so straightforward.

There is a pause. "Go to sleep." She replies, turning her back towards his back.

Boruto says no more and obeys. He wakes up in the middle of the night to a streak of moonlight from a gap in the curtain illuminating dried streaks of tears on Sarada's peaceful, sleeping face. He does not mention this when morning comes and they wake up together, feeling closer and more comforted than they had the previous night.

Sarada doesn't mention his tears, either.

* * *

><p>Despite their relationship of childhood friends, after Boruto and Sarada entered the academy, they rarely spoke. It might have been a six-year-old phase. It might have been growing up.<p>

Boruto became an active prankster, mostly to catch the attention of Naruto. Sarada indulged herself in books and lost interest in interpersonal relationships. She could not see the point of Boruto's pranks as they were not practical for he had to deal with the consequences himself. She could not imagine herself doing any of the things that he does on a regular basis; they were just too out of character for her personality.

Sarada became able to take care of herself. She stayed home alone on the occasional days when Sakura was busy overnight at the hospital. She was old enough, and she was a capable kunoichi. But what aspired her the most was hearing that Hokage-sama had been living by himself long before he entered the academy. The Hokage was a very admirable man, Sarada knew not only from growing up with his family in his house, but also from records of the past detailing all the events of history which have led to this moment.

Also, her own father had lived by himself from a young age.

She wanted to surpass her father by becoming capable at a younger age than he. (She wanted to be closer to him.)

This all meant she saw Boruto less, as she had no need to have sleepovers with the Uzumaki family anymore.

She didn't mind that much, really.

She sometimes remembers Auntie Hinata kissing Uncle Naruto when he comes home after a long day at work, about eating dinner at the rectangular table together and there being five chairs, with Hinata and Naruto sitting together on one side, Himawari, Boruto and herself sitting across them. She thinks about Boruto's silly antics after a delicious dinner cooked by Hinata, when he is full and energetic. She thinks about Himawari's cheerful energy radiating from her even when the sun isn't up. She thinks about Naruto and Hinata sitting on the couch, side by side, observing the three children contentedly.

At home, when the door is knocked, she rushes to it before Mama does. Most of the time the person behind it is not Papa, but when it is, Sarada jumps and throws herself onto her father who tells her Papa is home, and she has grown taller again. Papa carries her with both hands as Mama comes to the door, and they look into each other's eyes, and Mama wraps her arms around Papa, with Sarada between them.

Sarada does not sleep between her parents even on the rare nights when Papa is home, in order to show her maturity, in order for Papa to be proud of her. Her room is next to her parents', close enough that she feels safety through the wall between them. Papa and Mama sleep in their room together, and Sarada is sure that they hold each other close all night—just like she, Boruto and Himawari used to—and all the loneliness Mama has will dissolve into nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

_Setting: Konoha hospital. Boruto and Sarada, age sixteen. Boruto in hospital due to injury from a previous mission.  
><em>

and no i didn't just jump ten years ahead permanently lel

* * *

><p>Boruto knew he was going to upset her, but he really had enough. He was tired and aching and he didn't want to hear her complain about her family, see her so depressed over it. He was exhausted. "Stop being hung up over your parents! You're old enough! I'm the same as you, but I'm not complaining am I!?"<p>

Boruto breathed heavily. A pang of regret hit him. That was too harsh, he knew it was too harsh. He wasn't her enemy. He was her friend. He stared down into his lap, afraid of seeing the expression on her face.

He...why did he do that? Didn't he swear to protect her, the day her Sharingan activated and her eyes bled and she cried? The regret grew until it was lysed. He guiltily looked up.

He wished he didn't. He wished he never said anything. How could he have said something so so horrible? Her face was pale with shame and embarrassment. He could see that all the times she had been complaining about herself were standing up and hitting her in the face. She knew she was being unreasonable all this time, yet being told by another person, _by Boruto_, made everywhere unbearable to look at. She had been aware that she had only been talking about herself to him lately, because of all the stress, all the negativity. Yet she was tired too, and she didn't bother, couldn't bother to correct herself. She was being immature, being insolent. They were both at extreme fault.

Boruto opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He could apologise, but he didn't even know how to start apologising. He could feel himself forgiving her, for he had never blamed her that much, or really at all, for she, _Sarada_, was impossible to blame. However with the sudden shift in the air he wonders whether he deserved to blame her at all. He knew what she was like better than she did herself, knew that she was absolutely imperfect, but he didn't mind any of that. They were still friends, perhaps best friends.

A smirk made its way onto her lips. She was looking down below Boruto's hospital bed, scarily still. The vulnerability that was herself a few seconds ago disappeared, replaced by something untouchable and violent. Untouchable in the wall that she had been building around herself since the first time she cried with him after Sasuke left the village, erected and broken again and again, erected again this time taller than before, leaving permanent damage in the ground of her heart from which the wall had its foundations. Violent in her ability of destruction, in every way possible, be it physical or mental, be it casting a genjutsu on him that leaves him unable to move for days, for he had seen her do that on an enemy before when she was pushed to breaking point at the age of thirteen, and her eyesight had never been the same since then. Or be it hurting herself inside again like the time he watched her forlornly, longingly stroke her tantou under a dark cold tree before he called her out to switch watch. Right now she was capable of anything. He had criticised her for her sensitivity to the situation she and her parents were in, for her father being rumoured to have gone to 'the side he came from' again. Regret and guilt crushed Boruto with even more weight.

"Did you know that my parents married because of me?" She said calmly.

"What? Ho—"

"They married because Mother became pregnant. They couldn't wait, to have sex, you know?"

Boruto wasn't used to Sarada talking so bluntly, with so little flair and refinement. He also didn't know what to think, what to do with this information. He didn't know if he should try to imagine it, try to understand her, try something. Everything became a muddle of uncertainty when it came to Sarada. Always, always Sarada.

Sarada's smirk widened, and Boruto suddenly remembered one of the dreams he had on the nights when Sarada stayed over when they were children: of a magnificent giant snake with red eyes, suddenly appeared in a blast of smoke in the midst of an annihilating explosion. Why was the snake there, when it would have been killed? He couldn't remember.

"Should we do that too?" She edged closer to him, cupping his face with a cold hand.

Boruto's eyes widened. In what, in horror or fear he did not know. He should have been incredulous with what she'd just suggested, but all he felt was the impending destruction she was going to place upon him as punishment for saying the one thing to her that should never be said to her. He was like a deer in headlights, as if her hand was poison giving him paralysis of the whole body by just touching him. He couldn't move, for part of him believed he deserved whatever cruelty she was going to place on him, whatever cruelty which will be the first that she places on him completely consciously. He felt like she was going to kill him, like it was a definite probability now. As if she had fallen to the darkness of her blood, the curse of the Uchiha, once again.

He couldn't move as her other hand covered his wide open eyes and she moved in to move her lips against his.

He felt pressure, a soft and cold pressure, staying on his lips. He wanted to run away, yet he didn't know if he deserved to touch her as his sin was too big, as he hurt her too much with a single outburst. He could only stay still, frozen, and then she moulded her lips around his and parted them slightly.

He couldn't move. His hands were like ice. Maybe she had poison in her mouth, poison that only she was immune to. Maybe she was giving him a patient, painful death, starting with stopping the blood to his limbs for many days until they started to rot, like they had no soul.

Then she pulled back, shaking her hand which had been covering his eyes free of the tears that had leaked from them with something akin to disgust. Her eyes switched to gaze into his bloodshot ones, cold and black, and all of a sudden Boruto felt a strange kinship to his father Naruto who he had not seen for a while. Boruto's neck moved mechanically, turning away from her, then turning back to her, as if he had not moved it in a year's length coma.

Did he have to do something? Did he have to say sorry? Did he have to breathe the _audible intent_ in this hostile hospital room, with the amaryllis that Sarada had brought, a mixture of blood red and bone white on each petal, in a pretty flower vase, with an apple peeled and cut into pieces by Himawari on a plate next to his bed?

Amaryllis? Didn't Inojin say what its flower meaning was, not long ago? The flower of pride? The nymph who pierced her heart with arrows for thirty days, leaving a flower stained beautiful with her blood and carrying her death? What did this symbolise?

Sarada laughed. A loud, unforced sound. "Did you like that, Boruto?" She snarled. "Did you like what my mother felt? Do you know what my father is like? Do you know what I am like, with his blood in me?" She was trembling. "What is it like to find out about their shameful past? You are the same as me? Don't make me laugh!" She swung her arm, causing the vase in its pathway to smash as it hit the ground. She swooped down, grabbed a piece of the broken china and threw it towards the camera in the top corner of the room, hitting it straight on. She grabbed Boruto's collar, pulling his face centimeters to hers. "Where was your dad when your mum was deathly injured in the hospital after a mission? Right next to her." She hissed. "Don't you _dare_ say we are the same. Don't you _dare_ say your dad ever drugged your mum to sleep so he could leave the village. Why did I have to be with you so often back then? Why did my mother have to work overnight at the hospital so often? _Because she was outside the village looking for Uchiha Sasuke that's why! _She was never at the hospital! She was always looking for him! But he could never be found! And now he can't be found again, and she's looking for him again. Don't you _dare_ say you know how I feel, you know how I feel that the person I admired the most in my life is actually a _traitor!_"

She stormed out of the room, slamming the door.

And Boruto pulled out his IV and ran after her, for a drop or two of blood from his arm is nothing compared to the bleeding of her eyes soon to occur from Sharingan overuse when she trains against her own body in the training grounds that had once been used by their parents' team, Team 7.


End file.
